Another price hike on GHA coaches services

[northwichcat]

This week GHA increased a lot of their day tickets by 50p again, having done the same last year.

A Cheshire Day ticket is now £5 with is a 43% increase on the £3.50 it was before the 2008 price increase!

 

[323235]

I still consider anything upto £5.00 to be good value (£2.50 for 2 journeys and less for more) for any bus operators Day Tickets, however when you size it up against the likes of Bakerbus/Arriva/D&G or other operators then it doesn't look as good.

What East Cheshire really needs is a sub-£10 all operator day ticket and the extension of the Zonal element of the Cheshire Travelcard to give all operator Weekly and Monthly tickets. When this will ever happen though.....

 

[northwichcat]

I still consider anything upto £5.00 to be good value (£2.50 for 2 journeys and less for more) for any bus operators Day Tickets, however when you size it up against the likes of Bakerbus/Arriva/D&G or other operators then it doesn't look as good.

But then you're paying £5 for a bus journey when an equivalent length train journey in Greater Manchester or Merseyside might be less than £4 and both faster and a more frequent service.

While the £5 ticket would cover an Altrincham-Chester journey it would take 4 or 5 times longer by bus than train.

What East Cheshire really needs is a sub-£10 all operator day ticket and the extension of the Zonal element of the Cheshire Travelcard to give all operator Weekly and Monthly tickets. When this will ever happen though.....

Given the limited number of bus routes in some towns it would need rail travel included and the towns just outside the 'Cheshire East' border like Altrincham, Northwich, Warrington and Whitchurch to be included to provide good value for money.

 

[185]

Cheshire used to have this:
http://omnibuses.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/goodbye-sunday-adventures.html

Always used to get a blank look in Stoke on Trent (PMT C84/320) or Manchester (GM 10) with a GSA ticket with a Merseybus ticket inside the wallet.

 

[323235]

Greater Manchester and Merseyside fares and tickets are much more heaviley subsidised and the PTE have involvement in sustaining them so they will always be far cheaper than East Cheshire. I don't think that is likely to change anytime soon.

Day Tickets arn't usually bought if only a Single journey is intended to be made, GHA Coaches website/facebook page states they offer Singles and Returns so it shouldn't be costing many people £5.00 for one short distance bus journey, in fact a Day Ticket will only be an option if making 3 or more journeys if discounted Day Returns are available between all points where the Single fare is above £1.60 as implied, so a Day Ticket would be giving the equivalent of at least 3 journeys at £1.60 each which ain't bad.

Some of Cheshire already has a Bus+Train Day Ticket with TfGM Wayfarer which is now available at all Paypoints and many towns in Cheshire now have Plusbus (Congleton+Biddulph added recently) which usually offers very cheap bus travel on all operators when combined with rail travel (Macclesfield Plusbus is £1.60)

Whilst it's not perfect, its probably the best we're going to get on that front at the moment because Cheshire East don't get involved in rail.

I never new of the existance of the Sunday Adventurer and if I had I probably wouldn't have used it unfortunately as much as I would have liked to because we have only ever had 3 buses each way here on a Sunday until 2011 when they were withdrawn. Before that the Sunday 191 journeys were withdrawn in the late nineties/early noughties.

 

[northwichcat]

I was meaning a return bus journey on GHA between two neighbouring towns can cost you £5 while a return rail journey between two neighbouring towns in a PTE area might cost you £4 (saying £4 return for the PTE rail journey is likely to be the Anytime fare not the Off-Peak fare.)

I wonder if GHA actually offer the £1.60 single fare between any two points which aren't within walking distance of one another. I've noticed on their Facebook page and Twitter feed when someone asks about a fare on a Vale Travel route they respond saying they don't know as Vale Travel are their sister company, even though GHA livered buses regularly appear on Vale Travel routes without any 'on hire to' notice displayed.

Macclesfield Plusbus excludes GHA who have recently taken over Macclesfield-Prestbury and off-peak route 130 journeys.

 

[323235]

Yes I meant to include that about the Plusbus as I once used Vale of Llangollen (GHA liveried bus) with one, being unable to recall whether they were an operator that accepted them, as I was intending to use the Number 4 Arriva Macclesfield - Upton Priory but the 19 was the next bus service to depart. I later checked again on the website and discovered that Vale of Lllangollen/GHA didn't accept them.

Do GHA/Vale of Llangollen not offer Return tickets between all points that are cheaper than a Day Ticket?